Spotlight Tour & Giveaway: Healing Fire by Sean Michael

What will it
take for a dragon prince to defy his father and fly on his own?

Prince Jules,
the least favorite of the Dragon King's children, lives simply, banished to his
rooms and the amazing adventures found in his books. He has never left the
palace or shifted into his dragon form…he's never done anything.

Dragon shifter
Lem is assigned to Jules as the prince's new bodyguard, and is determined to
keep Jules safe from the Graithen, who killed the prince’s previous guardian.
Lem grows to hate how the King hides Jules away, and longs to show him how to
fly. His love for Jules also grows but it is forbidden, like so much in Jules'
life.

Lem
was worried about the prince. Jules didn’t sleep. He didn’t eat. He didn’t do
anything but lie in his bed. Lem knew how to defend Jules from outside threats.
He did not know how to defend the prince from himself.

The
little prince was never cruel. He barely spoke, he barely moved. Lem had been
told that Jules used to spend most of his time reading, staying in his suite
with his bodyguard Mabon.

Lem,
of course, knew Mabon—all the bodyguards knew each other by sight—but not very
well. The strong dragon had been older and had had more training than Lem
currently did when he’d been called to the prince’s side almost two hundred
years ago.

Lem
knew they were very big wings indeed that he had to fill. He also knew, without
question, that the blame would fall upon him should Jules die. And rightly so.
He was the prince’s protector. He just wasn’t sure how he could protect Jules
from himself, for surely that was what the danger was at this time. It made Lem
think. What would Mabon have done?

There
was a private courtyard off of Jules’ rooms, meant solely for the prince’s
pleasure. Lem knew that no one else was allowed back there, not even gardeners.
The area was completely cut off from the rest of the castle by high, windowless
walls, and the only entrance was through the door in Jules’ quarters. Perhaps a
little air, a change of scenery would be good. Decided, Lem went to Jules, the
prince still curled up in his nest as he had been earlier this morning. And
yesterday, and the day before that, and the week before that, since Lem had
been here.

“Your
Highness, let’s go out to the courtyard. I can hear the fountain, but have
never seen it.”

Jules
looked at him for a moment, the green eyes beautiful, if so sad. One slender
hand waved as if to say, “go.”

Grunting,
Lem girded his loins against his own training, which said he didn’t do this,
that he was never to touch the prince if he could avoid it. He bent, picking
Jules right up out of his nest.

“What?”
Jules sputtered.

Dragons
needed sustenance, sunlight. They needed it. Lem clung to that thought and
stayed the course.

“We
are going to the courtyard.”

He
didn’t put Jules down. The prince would probably curl back up in his nest, or
possibly find a nook or cranny to hide in, and Lem was not having that. He was
taking his prince into the sunlight, even if it meant he was disobeying his
prince’s wishes. His job was to protect and defend.

When
Lem pushed through the door into the courtyard, he gasped as the sunshine
touched his skin. It had been days. Days. He could feel it, energizing him,
warming him. He had been so busy worrying about the prince, he’d forgotten his
own need for the warm touch.

He
wanted to close his eyes and bask, but he didn’t. As private as this space was,
that didn’t mean impenetrable. There was still the air, and he was no longer
guarding the door from Jules’ quarters. So he kept his eyes open, stayed aware,
and walked toward the lovely fountain that had pride of place in the center of
the surprisingly roomy courtyard.

“Can
you feel the sunshine in your bones?” he asked even though he knew Jules could,
the dull sheen on Jules’ skin already beginning to warm, to take on a hint of
vitality.

It
was obvious to Lem that he had done the right thing. Master Anselle had always
told him to follow his gut. Worried as it had made him, he had. He sent a
silent prayer of thanks and love to his teacher. Every lesson, no matter how
strange or hard or simple, was proving to be useful in the guardianship of his
charge.

Prince
Jules lifted his face to the sun, the motion simple, instinctual. It gave Lem
his first real look at the prince’s face.

Unlike
the thickset, heavy dragons that made up Lem’s caste, Jules had the delicate,
gentle features of the ruling class. Perhaps the most beautiful features Lem had
ever seen. The sadness in them did not dim Jules’ beauty in the least.

Lem
let himself memorize the fine cheekbones, the long, slender nose. He imagined
Jules’ dragon would be quite small, but perfectly formed. He’d never seen a
royal in dragon form, but had heard that their scales were impossibly
beautiful.

Moving
to the fountain, he took in the form of the tree that was in the center of it,
water pouring from its boughs. Such wonderful magic!

“My
mother formed this for me.” Words, actual words, offered freely. This was
indeed a magical spot.

“It’s
beautiful. Is the water healing?” Lem asked as he sat on the bench that wound
its way around the fountain.

Jules
nodded. “But it cannot heal me.”

About
the Author:

Sean Michael,
often referred to as "Space Cowboy" and "Gangsta of Love"
while still striving for the moniker of "Maurice," spends his days
surfing, smutting, organizing his immense gourd collection and fantasizing
about one day retiring on a small secluded island peopled entirely by horseshoe
crabs. While collecting vast amounts of vintage gay pulp novels and mood rings,
Sean whiles away the hours between dropping the f-bomb and pursuing the Kama
Sutra by channeling the long lost spirit of John Wayne and singing along with
the soundtrack to "Chicago."

A long-time
writer of complicated haiku, currently Sean is attempting to learn the advanced
arts of plate spinning and soap carving sex toys.

Barring any of
that? He'll stick with writing his stories, thanks, and rubbing pretty bodies
together to see if they spark.

For more
information on other books by Sean, visit his official website: